Cast-steel railway crossing pieces



April 16, 1968 R. PERROT CAST-STEEL RAILWAY CROSSING PIECES Filed April 24, 1967 United States Patent 1 Claim. ci. 246--454) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Cast-iron crossing piece for railway tracks, wherein the running heads thereof terminate with a tubular portion, each end of said crossing piece comprising a bearing plate, this crossing piece being characterized in that said tubular portion is truncated in order to provide a clearance under the remaining tubular portion, above the bearing plate, and that said bearing plate is formed with hearing bosses and guiding bosses adapted to permit the proper positioning and welding of connecting members extending between the aforesaid tubular portions and the Vignoles rails of the track, in perfect alignment with said tubular ends of the running heads.

Background of the invention Until recently cast steel railway crossing pieces were so designed that their running heads or lines merged, at each end, into rail-shaped sections, notably Vign'oles rails, which could be connected in the conventional manner, by means of fish plates, to the Vignoles rails of the tracks leading to or from the crossing pieces concerned.

This requirement of completing the end portions of the running heads or lines with Vignoles rail contours increased considerably the manufacturing difficulty and was the cause of many cracks observed in actual service in this zone. Therefore, it involved a constant track maintenance by the users in order to keep the bolts properly and constantly tightened.

To avoid these drawbacks, the applicant contemplated in a prior French Patent No. 1,431,034 crossing pieces wherein the running heads or lines terminate with a tubular portion, these pieces comprising beyond said end portions of the running heads or lines a bearing plate adapted properly to position the connecting Vignoles rails in the vertical direction, and connecting lugs for properly aligning these Vign-oles rails which are welded to this hearing plate and also to said connecting lugs with their ends abutting against those of the running heads or lines which are such that they provide for the wheels of the vehicles circulating on this crossing piece the same bearing and guiding surfaces as those of Vignoles rails.

This solution constituting an improvement over that of the aforesaid prior patent may be further improved by resorting to the structure of this invention which permits of dispensing with the use of said connecting lugs.

Summary of the invention To this end, the cast steel crossing piece according to the present invention, wherein the running heads or lines comprise a tubular end portion and have at each end a bearing plates, is characterised in that said tubular end portion is truncated in order to provide a clearance under the remaining tubular portion, above said plate, and that this bearing plate is provided with hearing bosses and guiding bosses so dimensioned and disposed as to permit the convenient positioning and welding of connecting members between the aforesaid tubular portions and the Vignoles rails, in perfect alignment with the tubular ends ice of the running heads or lines of the crossing piece, said connecting members being if desired of the type disclosed and illustrated in the applicants French Patent No. 1,432,640.

Brief description of the drawing The attached drawing illustrates diagrammatically by way of example one of the two ends of a crossing piece constructed according to the teachings of this invention. In the drawing:

FIGURE 1 is a plane view,

FIGURE 2 is a longitudinal sectional view taken along the line II-II of FIGURE 1, and

FIGURES 3, 4 and 5 are cross-sectional views taken respectively along the lines III-J11, 1V-IV and VV of FIGURE 1.

Description of the preferred embodiments The crossing piece 1 illustrated in the drawing comprises a bearing plate 2 provided with bearing bosses 3 and guiding bosses 4 projecting only very slightly above the top surface of said bearing plate 2; the running lines or heads 5 of the crossing piece have tubular end portions 6 bounded at their outer end by a vertical section 7 of which the external contour corresponds to that of the upper or head portion of a tubular and truncated rail, so as to provide a clearance 8 between said tubular truncated portions 6 and the bearing plate 2.

Disposed and secured in alignment with each running head or line in, 5b are two connecting members 9a and 9b consisting of steel castings having a tubular cross-sectional contour 10 at their inner end and the contour of a Vignoles rail '11 at their outer ends, of a length sutficient to permit the welding thereof. These connecting members 9a and 9b are aligned by means of the guiding bosses 4 and held in the proper vertical position by the bearing bosses 3 and the faces 3a, and also by means of the spikes provided on the crossties outside the crossing piece.

These connecting members are welded at 12 to the manganese steel casting, at the ends of the running heads or lines 6, and at 13 to the guiding bosses 4.

Of course, the form of embodiment of the invention which is described hereinabove with reference to the attached drawing is given by way of example only and many modifications and variations may be brought thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claim.

What I claim is:

1. Cast-steel crossing piece for railway tracks, wherein the running heads thereof terminate with a tubular portion, each end of said crossing piece comprising a bearing plate, this crossing piece being characterised in that said tubular portion (6) is truncated in order to provide a clearance (8) under the remaining tubular portion, above the bearing plate (2), and that said bearing plate is formed with bearing bosses (3) and guiding bosses !(4) adapted to permit the proper positioning and welding of connecting members (9a) and (9b) extending between the aforesaid tubular portions and the Vignoles rails of the track, in perfect alignment with said tubular ends of the running heads (5a) and (51)).

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 258,259 5/1882 Staples 246-454 ARTHUR L. LA POINT, Primary Examiner.

R. A. BERTSCH, Assistant Examiner. 

